Is There Really a Teacher Shortage?

Richard M. Ingersoll is the Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. After teaching in both public and private schools for a number of years, Ingersoll obtained a PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. From 1995 to 2000, he was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. Ingersoll's research is concerned with the character of elementary and secondary schools as workplaces, teachers as employees, and teaching as a job. He has published over 100 articles, reports, chapters, and essays on topics such as the management and organization of schools; accountability and control in schools; teacher supply, demand, shortages and turnover; induction and mentoring for beginning teachers; the problem of underqualified teachers; the status of teaching as a profession; and changes in the demographic character of the teaching force. His research on these issues has been widely reported in the media and featured in numerous major education reports.